Worst Cell Phones - Palm Pilot Tungsten W

The King Daddy of Worst Cell Phones.

Well one of them.

I was a Palm Pilot fanatic.

I had the first version way back in '96. I upgraded to the Palm III and then to a 7x, I think around 2002.

When the Tungsten W came out, I was excited. Finally, I could quit carrying both a cell phone and a PDA. The best of both worlds!

First problem: The Tungsten only worked at the time with ATT Wireless, now part of Cingular which is now the new ATT. (Cellular phone companies are like classic rock bands - they change names and members, but play the same old songs).

The ugly bad about the Tungsten W.

- Dialing by icons aka software dialing! . Yes, you could dial using the full size QWERTY keyboard, but the interface to use was the screen, a la Apple iPhone. The problem was dialing while driving - not easy and I wonder if iPhone users have the same complaint?

- Phone calls on headset only. Really. Voice calls on the Tungsten could only be made with a headset. There was a software install which allowed the Tungsten to operate like a normal phone, (microphone and speaker on device), but I could never get it to work. A call to Palm at the time revealed the feature was never supported.

All in all, this was not a bad thing if you had glascelphobia (the fear of your face touching a large glass panel while using a cell phone).

- No Bluetooth. It seems this phone was designed around 1992 before wireless technologies were envisioned. Not only did one have to use a headset for all calls, an actual wire was required for the ear bud. Fun, especially when the phone was not plugged into your ear and you were on the turnpike in traffic.

- No WiFi. One needed to purchase the non-cell phone version for WiFi fun.

- Blazing websurfing! At 40kbps!

- No apps. Because the processor in the Tungsten W was not the same as those found in other Palm Pilots, there were few if any apps for it. Non-Palm W apps froze up the Palm W. Reset by ball point pen tip time!

The palm de resistance came at CTIA 2003 when I visited the Palm booth. I showed the W to one of Palm's employees and the conversation went like this:

Me: "Hi, I have a Palm W and had some questions about it.."

Palm Employee: "Oh, you bought one of those? Yeah, that product did not work out so well. You know the new Treo is coming out which is a much better device".

Me: "Oh, so I can trade this in for one?"

Palm Employee: Laughing. "No. Not for that thing!" More laughing.

Shortly afterwards, I purchased a no-name ATT Wireless phone, a Samsung I think, and the Palm's SIM card departed for its new home. The Palm W continued as a PDA and languished in my back pack for a few more seasons.

Sometime around 2007 I last saw it in my desk. Battery dead, data lost. A brief relic from a bygone era now long since dominated by Blackberries.

Another sad chapter from the Worst Cell Phones I Have Had.

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